Those Flames That Did Rise
by ScribeOfRhapsody
Summary: Bucky and Loki survived when Thanos snapped his fingers. The ones they cared about the most didn't.


_**Decided to try my hand at this slight AU idea. Please enjoy. Or cry at it. Ya know. That's fine too.** _

* * *

_He doesn't look like a world conqueror._

That's what Bucky noted as he stared at the gaunt figure in the cell ahead of him. Or rather… he didn't look like it _now_ , but Bucky of all people knew how easy it was to fool someone with a mask of lies. Bucky had heard the stories about New York. That would have been enough to render him skeptical of the man's intentions, but his own eyes just saw more than stories could tell. The Asgardian had fought alongside him only a few hours ago.

It had been a turn in the battle that none expected, but one that had almost granted them victory. Friend and foe had paused, all turning their gazes to the sky as the portal of thunder had made the battlefield tremble. It had crashed to the ground and so had they – the lightening Avenger Bucky had never met, two unknown allies, and him. _Loki._ The one who had supposedly started it all. Only… he wasn't there as the foe the others expected.

There was no hesitation in his attacks. He charged Thanos' forces alongside his brother, grinning at the chaos like it was an old friend. That was why Bucky noticed him at first. Not because he was the man behind New York, but because of the feral lethalness of his fighting style – the fluid way his knives separated flesh and bone. It was all too similar to Bucky's time under Hydra's control, only Loki was _enjoying_ it.

No one could protest his presence, though. There wasn't time for that. He was there. He was with them. They needed every man and woman possible.

So they'd fought with him. Bucky had fought with him, standing side by side with him at one point, even, only for the Asgardian to vanish and reappear elsewhere when things became too overwhelming.

Illusions. Tricks. Tactical flourishing. Someone like that could sell a thousand lies – fake a hundred emotions.

But he wasn't faking. Not now, sitting in his cell looking frail and empty. _Numb_ might have been the word Bucky would use, but the pain behind the man's eyes was too apparent for that.

His eyes on the battlefield had been haughty. Mirthful. Enraged. Even joyful when Thor had swooped in and they'd performed a perfect dual attack like it was second nature.

Bucky had lost track of him after that. The next time he saw him was after things had gone to hell.

The battle had _not_ stayed turned in their favor. The battle had _not_ been won.

Thanos had arrived.

Thanos had tossed most of them aside like flies.

The few of them that could make a dent weren't enough. Not when time itself was literally within his grasp.

Their last flicker of hope – Thor burying that magical axe into Thanos' chest – had been extinguished with a few simple words.

"You should have gone for the head."

 _Snap._

They'd failed. They'd failed, and Thanos was gone.

But he wasn't the only one, and the others didn't escape. The others started _disintegrating,_ only without fire – literally falling to pieces. Into ash.

The time it took varied from person to person. Some were gone before they'd even realized they were next. Others had time to look down and watch in horror as their bodies slowly faded into the air.

But none of them could do anything about it. Nothing but wish, hope, _pray._

Half the population. Half.

Bucky didn't think about himself. Hell, as far as ways to go were, this one at least seemed quick and relatively painless.

No, the mantra playing in his head was _not Steve, not Steve, anyone but Steve…_

But no amount of hoping or praying had worked for anyone. Not even the supposed gods in their midst.

" _Thor!_ "

Bucky hadn't seen Loki before today, but no matter what he'd done or what was said about him in the past, no one could convince Bucky that the man in the cell before him didn't care for his brother.

The proof was in the dust. The copious amounts of dust that had covered all of them – their hair, their clothes, their faces. Loki's face had less dust on it now than most, but not because he'd washed it. No… it was a simple matter of the tear tracks that had carved their way down his face, carrying the grime away. The tear tracks that were still prominent even now.

Bucky wasn't even trying to be subtle as he walked up to the cell, but Loki didn't seem to notice all the same. Or maybe he just didn't care.

The vacant anguish in his eyes spoke of him being somewhere else – a place Bucky had been before, reliving one same horrible moment over and over, millions of what ifs running through his mind.

Loki's arms were limp in his lap as he sat on the bed, back against the wall.

There was still blood above his lips. Dried now, but still another testament to how much he'd tried to save his brother. Tried to save him and… and Steve.

Bucky's fist tightened, the metal giving a whine of protest at how hard he was squeezing. He probably should have been angry. Maybe. But no… he understood what it was like to have a brother he'd give anything for, even if that brother wasn't a brother via blood.

He couldn't honestly say he wouldn't have done the same.

Thor had started to disappear first out of the two of them, starting with his hands. The hands that had _almost_ finished this mess.

Loki had noticed before Thor himself, crying his brother's name with sudden alarm that drew all eyes.

Bucky had never truly met Thor, but he knew he was a good friend of Steve's. It was for that reason that he'd turned to Steve then, to offer his support as Steve lost yet another person he cared about.

But Steve wasn't even looking at Thor because he was too busy watching his own arms disappear.

"Steve? No…" He couldn't remember giving his mouth the order to speak, but it was apparently enough to make the others around notice that Thor wasn't the only one about to leave them.

Steve looked up at Bucky then, expression as soft and accepting as always behind that more gruff exterior he'd been supporting lately. "Buck…"

And then a shimmering gold light rippled over him, encasing and locking Steve in a skin-tight aura that stopped his vanishing in its tracks.

Bucky whipped his head around so fast that his neck gave a slight pop.

The same thing had happened to Thor, and Loki had his hands lifted towards both of them, brow furrowed in concentration as he stood in a deep, braced-like fighting stance.

"Loki, what are you doing?"

"Trying to save your life, you idiot. What does it look like?" Loki hissed.

For just a few moments, hope flickered within Bucky. Then he noticed the slight tremor in Loki's hands.

"How long can you keep that up?" Bucky found himself walking closer to Steve, staring at his arms as they tried to flake away but were held in shape.

A dry, humorless chuckle left Loki's lips. "I'm honestly not certain…" A grimace flashed over his face, his breath beginning to sound more labored.

"Loki…" Thor said softly.

"Don't."

"…Brother."

"Shut up, Thor!" Loki snapped, his… _magic_ flickering for a moment and making both Steve and Thor lurch and topple over before the containment on their forms sealed fully again.

Bucky was at Steve's side instantly, stopping short of touching him in case that somehow ruined the barrier.

"Loki, you cannot keep doing this!" Thor yelled, staggering back to his feet, but Bucky's focus was elsewhere.

Steve had his eyes closed, obviously pushing back pain before he looked up at Bucky, a small smile pulling at one corner of his lips. "End of the line, pal…"

"The hell is it," Bucky growled.

There were footsteps behind him, but Bucky didn't turn to find out who it was. The only thing that made him look over his shoulder was the muffled grunt of pain from Loki.

No. _No, no, no…_

The man's arms were shaking violently now, breath coming in short bursts. Thor's expression was caught somewhere between horror and sorrow.

"Buck…" Steve's arms were wrapped around his midsection, like he was trying to help hold himself together. He took a slow breath before speaking again, repeating the words Bucky wished with all his heart that he wouldn't have to hear. "It's the end of the line… I'm sorry."

"Don't you say that – don't you say that, dammit!" Again, Bucky reached out, but stopped himself just short of touching Steve's arm.

Steve looked past him, and Bucky turned back yet again to find him meeting eyes with Loki.

Loki's gaze was level, and when he spoke, it was a neutral tone. Not sorry, but not dismissive either. "Sorry, Captain."

No.

Loki dropped his left hand.

" _Steve!_ "

Steve crumbled all at once, eyes slipping closed almost peacefully before he was just _gone_ in a haze of brown-grey papery chunks and sand.

Bucky screamed.

This wasn't fair. _This wasn't fair._ The childish thought looped in his head.

Steve was the last person on this planet – on any planet – that deserved to die. Always so stupidly selfless.

Bucky's throat constricted. He was devastated, that much wasn't avoidable. But he couldn't find it within himself to be angry with Loki. Not with what happened next. Bucky didn't even know how he wasn't too overwhelmed to miss Thor's farewell, but somehow he got every bit of it.

Turning all his attention to Steve didn't seem to make much difference. Maybe it had bought Thor a few seconds, but Loki was still straining with all his might, sweat trailing down the back of his neck as he gritted his teeth.

"Loki…" Thor shook his head.

"Shut up, Thor, I need to focus!"

"No, you need to listen to me!" Thor's voice thundered like the lightning he'd been calling down earlier, and he took a few long strides forwards, grabbing Loki's outstretched hand with one of his and his shoulder with the other one.

Bucky nearly sobbed. So touch didn't break the containment after all.

"Brother…" Thor's grip on his brother's hand had helped tame the shaking, but Loki was still trembling. "You need to stop this. You're hurting yourself. Let me go."

"You never let _me_ go," Loki choked out, looking worse by the second.

Thor smiled, moving the hand that was on his brother's shoulder up to rest on the side of his neck. "And I never would have. But this isn't something you can stop."

The anguish in Loki's eyes was something no man could have faked, but another grimace overwhelmed it and then blood began seeping from his left nostril.

"Loki," Thor pleaded. "You know Thanos better than the rest of us. _You_ can help stop him."

Loki let out a strangled laugh. "Bit late for that."

Thor shook his head, falling into a slightly wider stance as he started supporting more and more of Loki's weight. "No, it isn't. And they'll need you."

"Thor…" Loki barely mumbled out.

Thor smiled at him again. "I'll give your regards to Mother and Father."

"No…"

The barrier around Thor flickered, but still, Thor kept smiling. "They would be so proud."

The tears spilled over then, something in Loki's eyes visibly cracking. "Brother, I–"

The barrier gave out, and so did Thor's support. Loki fell through Thor's form as he dispersed, literally slipping through Loki's fingers.

Silence fell.

Loki stayed on his knees, staring at his empty hand.

He didn't even try to fight as the remaining Avengers hauled him off.

Bucky scoffed inwardly as he blinked, finding himself back in the present. Like Loki was a threat right now. Even if he wasn't borderline comatose, he was hardly their biggest problem, but everyone was running around like headless chickens trying to keep things together. Bucky guessed this was just their way of saying they'd figure it out later.

Half the world was gone. A lot of cleanup needed to be done. Bucky wasn't the one to help with that. Neither was Loki. They weren't heroes. They just fought alongside the men they trusted who were. But now those men were gone, so what was left for them?

Honestly, Bucky should probably have been shutting down too, but he wasn't for some reason. Maybe it hadn't fully sunk in yet. Maybe he wasn't ready to accept it. Maybe he still hadn't shifted out of combat mode.

Whatever the reason, there was a cold rage within him driving him forwards. Was it some leftover Hydra programing, calling him to exact revenge? If so, for once he was thankful for it.

Maybe the prospect of a little revenge was what the world needed. That was what people seemed to respond to in this day and age. Maybe Asgardians weren't so different in that regard. Especially one as vicious as this guy.

Everyone left was a mess. They were focused on the fixing. Bucky didn't want to fix things. He couldn't. He was still being hunted in the rest of the world. He needed to do what he was built to – kill. But he couldn't get to Thanos on his own.

Bucky crossed his arms. "So, are you gonna keep sitting on your ass all day, or are you gonna actually do what your brother asked and help us out?"

As he suspected, Loki had known he was there. He wasn't surprised at his presence, but Bucky guessed that his words _were_ unexpected.

Some awareness returned to the Asgardian's gaze as he raked his eyes over Bucky in a completely unstable fashion. "I don't believe we've met, mortal."

"Bucky," Bucky said flatly. "A.k.a. the Winter Soldier, a.k.a. the White Wolf, a.k.a. Steve's best friend."

"Quite a list." Loki leaned his head back against the wall, bringing one leg up to rest his heel on the bed and then propping his elbow on his knee. "Though I suspect that last one is no longer entirely relevant."

Bucky wanted to snap Loki's neck for that, but the soldier in him held him steady. He'd played this game too many times. Loki was just prodding him – trying to spur him into reacting so he could get a reading on him. He wasn't going to fall for that.

"Why did you try to save him?" he asked instead. That was what didn't make sense to him. Why bother trying to save Steve at all? No one would have even faulted him for just trying to save his brother, and he didn't care about that anyway. What was the motive here?

Loki looked at the ceiling, as though bored since his words hadn't gotten a reaction. "I suppose it's a bit of an understatement at this point to say Thanos is a powerful foe. The Captain would have been an advantage to keep around."

Made sense. Loki had fought Steve before, after all. He must have left an impression "You think we've got any chance?"

" _We?_ " Loki echoed. He was smirking, but the smirk definitely was lacking the edge it had on the battlefield. "A few hours of chaos and the mighty Avengers are ready to ask for my help?"

"No." Bucky uncrossed his arms, walking over to the cell's controls and firmly pressing the key that unlocked the cell. "But I am."

Loki snapped his head up straight, no longer leaning it against the wall. Even with the cell open, he made no move to get off the bed. "Not a very wise move. I could kill you and leave."

"You could try," Bucky said tiredly. "Plenty of people have. But you won't."

"Oh, won't I?" One eyebrow quirked upwards. "And why is that?"

"Because I'm not the one who killed your brother."

All amusement on Loki's face died.

"And even if you did try…" Bucky shrugged, letting a sigh slip out. "Well, then I'd have an excuse to punch something."

Loki snorted. "I like you."

"I'm thrilled," Bucky deadpanned. "You coming or not?"

"To die hopelessly alongside you in a battle of vengeance that we have nearly no chance of winning?" Loki stood swiftly, that feral and vicious aura burning from within him once more. "I wouldn't dare miss it."

"Great. Any ideas for a plan?"

"Several, none of which are certain to end well." As he stepped out of the cell, a golden shimmer passed over his form, and all the dust on him and tears in his clothing vanished. "My brother's axe – do you know where it is?"

* * *

Getting past everyone was… frankly pathetically easy with Loki on his side. Bucky knew how to use stealth probably better than ninety-nine percent of the people here, but being actually invisible was another matter entirely.

Honestly, it was probably a horrible idea to let Loki have the axe that had stopped Thanos' power beam like it was a water stream, but the rest of them would probably die trying to wield it and Bucky supposed it was technically rightfully his anyway. After all, he'd apparently helped Thor make it and he was his brother. Not like Thor had left a will of who it was to go to. And, well, even if he had, he probably would have given it to Loki anyway. Loki was the only one who even understood how exactly it worked.

Whatever. Now they had their big weapon. No matter what Loki's plan was against Thanos, their next step was leaving Wakanda, preferably before the remaining Avengers realized Loki was out.

" _I don't know what he meant!_ "

Loki stopped in the middle of the hallway they were crossing. Bucky did too.

He knew that voice. _Stark._

When had he gotten here?

Loki swiveled around on his heel, both eyebrows raised. He signaled Bucky to move with him as he followed the voice to its source.

Damn. It was easy to spot Stark as they entered the room – he was in the dead center of it, and he looked like absolute hell.

Come to think of it, he looked even worse than last time Bucky had seen him, and that was saying something.

 _In tatters_ would have been a generous term to describe the state of his armor, and his clothes and skin underneath weren't much better. He looked like he was trying not to wince as Shuri examined the wound in his side.

There were also a lot of other people in the room. Several Wakandans that Bucky recognized but couldn't put names to were grouped around Stark, along with Natasha, Sam, Banner, Stark's friend… and a blue woman that looked part machine.

…Oh, what the hell. He'd fought with a talking raccoon earlier and was currently invisible thanks to magic from an alien. A blue cyborg woman was closer to what he was used to than that.

"And that's all Strange gave you?" Banner asked, looking the definition of confused.

"Yeah." Stark's voice was cracked. Raw. Whatever he'd been through today looked like it had been as bad as what happened here. If that was even possible.

Banner looked even more lost. "I don't understand. How could giving Thanos the time stone be our way to victory? He's too powerful now – nothing can stop him!"

Loki scoffed. "The same thing was said about Hela, yet here we are, Bruce."

All heads snapped in their direction.

…Okay, not sticking to the staying unseen plan, then.

" _You,_ " Stark growled, though Bucky couldn't say if Stark was talking to him or Loki. He couldn't seem to settle on which of them to glare at.

Within seconds, everyone with a weapon had one pointed at Loki. Except the robot dame.

Loki did nothing more than raise an eyebrow at Stark, whose hand blaster thing was flickering and barely even attached to the rest of the remains of his suit.

Loki flipped Thor's axe around slowly, almost silently daring them to make a move.

"Loki." The blue robot dame tilted her head in an almost birdlike way. "I hadn't expected Thanos to let you live this long."

"Nebula." Loki dipped his head. "I expected Thanos to have replaced you with a weapons rack at this point given the rate he was exchanging pieces of you for machinery." He raked his gaze over her. "Though I suppose you're not far off."

Banner looked between them, gesturing at them with his glasses in hand. "You… you two know each other?"

"If you count hearing each other's screams from a distance," Nebula said flatly, like that wasn't something horrifying to think about.

"Right…" Banner looked vaguely disturbed at that. "Guess you two really do know Thanos best… Got any ideas here, or–"

"Bruce." Stark was staring at him like he'd lost his mind. His outstretched hand wavered. He seemed exhausted, and he made no move to actually stand. "Are you looking at who you're talking to right now?"

Bruce made a few weird, cut off circle motions with his hands. "He looks better than Thanos."

"Oh, what a relief," Loki drawled.

"Can it, lumberjack," Stark snapped.

"Boys." Natasha spoke up for the first time, her gun still trained on Loki. "Can we focus please?"

"Agreed." Bucky had about enough of these detours. He met Stark's gaze. "It doesn't matter what the hell any of us have done in the past – Thanos needs to be stopped, by any means we got."

"Does he?"

While the weapons were still pointed at Loki, everyone collectively shifted to stare at Stark's friend – the one who had been hurt at the airport battle. Rhodey, Bucky was pretty sure.

"I believe we're all waiting for an explanation that will hopefully render that question less absurd." Loki had subtly tightened his grip on his axe, his tone suddenly darker. Bucky could relate. Even the suggestion of _not_ stopping Thanos after what he'd just done made him angry too.

Rhodey had a hard set to his jaw that spoke of him not being happy about it either. "Look, I'm not saying I like it. I want him dead as much as the next guy for what he did, but we couldn't stop him when we were at our strongest and he didn't have all the infinity stones. What good are we going to be able to do now?"

"So, you're suggesting we don't even try?" Bucky spat with far more venom than he intended.

"I don't know!" Rhodey threw back. "The dude wanted to wipe out half the galaxy. That's done. Are we sure that fighting him now isn't just going to cost more lives than leaving him alone? He got what he said he wanted."

"Yes, well, he also _said_ he'd spare Thor's life if I handed over the Tesseract, and we all saw how that turned out, _didn't we?_ " Loki's tone was vicious. Unrelenting. "He doesn't keep his word, and furthermore, with all his power, do you honestly think he won't find something else he wants?"

Bucky shook his head. "Once somebody gets that kind of power, they don't just leave it alone. We can't trust that."

"You're the one who gave him the space stone?" Nebula ignored Bucky, moving over to Loki with her eyes narrowed. "You fool! You and Gamora _both!_ " She punctuated her last word by snagging the front of his tunic and pushing him back.

Given what he'd seen earlier, Bucky tensed, expecting Loki to snap and probably try to drive either his axe or a dagger into the arm that was holding him. If he attacked her and everyone started opening fire, it wouldn't take Thanos to finish them off.

But Loki didn't attack. He staggered back under the force of her push, the golden light of his magic washing over him again.

Oh. So he hadn't magicked away the blood and dirt and dust from himself after all – he'd just covered it up with an illusion. He still looked like hell. Worse than everyone else in the room, actually, and that included Stark.

"I suggest you remove your hand," Loki hissed, though it really wasn't that threatening with the obvious tear tracks now back on his face and how shredded and disheveled his clothes really were. "Lest _I_ remove it and Thanos won't be the only one cutting limbs off you."

"Yeah, if you don't bleed to death first…" Bucky couldn't help noticing that one of the blood patches on his side had grown and was still wet. Loki was injured and trying to cover it up.

Loki sent Bucky a glare, then swatted Nebula's hand off him, warning clear in his eyes.

Bucky stepped between them, not taking either side. "Look, this isn't helping anything."

"He's right." Banner was now frowning at Loki's side too. "You should get that looked at."

" _Bruce._ " Now even Natasha was giving him an odd look.

Bruce threw his hands up. "Why is everyone looking at me like that? Tony offered him a drink last time he was on Earth."

"I'm touched by your concern, Bruce, but I'll live." Loki was still glaring at Nebula over Bucky's shoulder. "Bringing Thanos down is a larger issue than my current health." His glare turned to Rhodey, as if daring him to argue. "As is addressing the pathetic state of the supposed warriors in this room."

One of the Wakandans – the Jabari leader whose name Bucky still didn't know – barked something harshly in their language, his spear and the spears of the men behind him raising further in threat.

Bucky could have sworn he saw Loki roll his eyes before he barked something back – in the same Wakandan dialect – with a tone equally harsh.

The Jabari leader hesitated, clearly taken aback by either whatever was said or just the fact that Loki had known his language at all.

Loki didn't spare him another moment of his time, instead rounding back on the rest of the room, specifically on the remaining original Avengers.

Something was different in his posture than before… the set of his jaw and shoulders. Reading body language was a key part of what his "occupation" used to be – imperative, even, to be able to recognize threats before they were threats. But this… this was intentional. This determination was something Loki was _trying_ to project. An aura he was trying to _spread_.

"Look at you lot – look at how far you've fallen," Loki spat out, Thor's axe gripped firmly in one arm as he made a flourishing gesture at them with the other. "A few mere years and you've fallen to pieces. The last time we faced each other, the death of one comrade rallied you into defeating an army you had no preparations for, yet now half your people fall and you're ready to crawl under a rock and lick your wounds? To hide and cut your losses when your loved ones have been reduced to ash before your very eyes?"

"We're just considering all our options!" Rhodey fired back.

"No, you're making excuses. Eventually, Thanos will not be content to sit on the power he has. You formed a group and called it the _Avengers_." Loki paused, facing Stark specifically. "So get off your ass and avenge your people."

Another pause followed.

"If you still think we can take down that bastard… I'm in." Bucky spoke up first. He'd started this, after all. That's why he'd gone to Loki in the first place. _For Steve._

"As am I." Nebula gave Loki a nod.

Banner sighed. "Oh, what the hell… Me too, big guy or not."

"And me," Shuri spoke up for the first time. Bucky had almost forgotten she was there with her being so uncharacteristically silent, but now she spoke confidently, her face hard.

Natasha just lowered her weapon as an answer.

The Jabari leader crossed his arms, letting out a grunt.

Tony sighed raggedly, dropping his arm into his lap. "Don't I still owe you a drink, lumberjack?"

Loki smirked. "Yes, I believe you do. And I see it only fitting that we all raise a glass in memory of the fallen."

 _In memory of the fallen._ Funny. Bucky had been ready to run off on a mission with just the two of them against Thanos _in memory of the fallen_. Yet, somehow, Loki of all people had just collected the broken remains of Earth's greatest fighters and pointed them all towards the same goal.

Steve would have been proud, and… well, Bucky still didn't know much about Thor, but he was pretty sure he would have been proud of his brother too.

* * *

 **#LokiDeservedBetter He better get greater role next time!**


End file.
